


More Than A Vatican Cameo

by Webtrinsic



Series: Mand'alor Ahsoka Tano [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Ahsoka Tano Needs a Hug, Ahsoka Tano-centric, Anakin Skywalker Doesn't Turn to the Dark Side, BAMF Ahsoka Tano, Beskar, Death Watch (Star Wars), Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fulcrum, Mando'a Language (Star Wars), Melancholy, Minor Character Death, Not Canon Compliant, Original Character(s), Planet Mandalore (Star Wars), Politics, Poor Obi-Wan Kenobi, Sorry Bo Katan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-17
Updated: 2020-11-17
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:14:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27605434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Webtrinsic/pseuds/Webtrinsic
Summary: Ahsoka Tano has three sabers, two cured, and one that leaves her the ruler of Mandalore.
Relationships: Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano, Padmé Amidala & Ahsoka Tano, Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker
Series: Mand'alor Ahsoka Tano [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2127162
Comments: 8
Kudos: 150





	More Than A Vatican Cameo

**Author's Note:**

> i probably dooped some mando culture, but yeah i wholeheartedly believe our girl is worthy to rule, she won that saber man
> 
> honestly i need more of this au so like idk if ill make a continuation but i want to do more duchess ahsoka

The sabers on her hips are the result of the force leading her to new parts and evidently to the sixth brother so she could cure his kyber crystals. The un-bleeding of the crystals is a spectacle because the crystals become pure before they are even in her hands. It’s a development that left her shaking, making peeling the sabers casing apart to reach the crystal and then construct her own that much harder.

She hasn’t found an answer as to how she managed to steal the hate from them without even touching them but she finds out something else. Something far more important than the anomaly. Under Coruscant, directly under the jedi temple, there is a sith temple shrouded in darkness being utilized by Chancellor Palpatine who in actuality was Darth Sidious.

Ahsoka knows this isn’t information she can take to the senate nor the Jedi. They will not hear her words. She ran after the temple bombing, knowing from their distrust of her then, they wouldn’t believe her now. Even if in the end Anakin had caught Barriss, they still hadn't heard her out. That's why when the broadcast of her master blared in search of the togruta to apologize and ask her back on, she didn’t return.

It’d gone against her instincts to ignore the cries of her pleading master, but the force forbade it. It reeled her back, overcoming her turmoil with the echo of her own voice, with words that haunted her now in the same way they did then.

_“There is a wildness to you, young one. Seeds of the dark side planted by your master. There are many contradictions in you and in him. Be warned, you may never see your future if you remain his student,”_

The warning held more mirth now, and from the snippets she remembered before. That fact wasn’t one to be taken with a straight face. The revelation that the dark side held the galaxy, _Anakin_ , in its grasp makes the force hurl those words at her until she acts.

They will not believe her but they will believe Fulcrum. A moniker she’d undertaken as she did what she’d always wanted to do. Help others. And her efforts had not gone unnoticed, she’d become very good friends with Bail Organa because of it.  Their alliance likely shook a fist in the face of politics, yet she knew these issues weren’t always so black and white. There was a bit of grey where she sat and thrived. Regardless Bail had given her the tools to reach out, and she does. 

She sends the evidence to Bail, requests he forwards it to Senator Amidala, praying to the force that her older sister/motherly figure wasn’t also under Palpatine’s control. The evidence consists of a video of her venture into the underground temple (her face, body, and voice all omitted), another recording of Palpatine himself conducting business in said temple with Count Dooku (she’d hidden the device well and was more than lucky she’d been able to retrieve it), various photos of the temples inside, and the testament of the sixth son explaining Dooku would soon be replaced by a sith called Darth Vader (Palpatine's recording revealing Anakin would be said Sith).

The seventeen year old either makes the biggest mistake of her life or single handedly saves the universe by also sending the evidence directly to Anakin’s subspace frequency. Then she sends it to Master Yoda terrified.

Minutes after they are sent, Ahsoka finds herself face to face with Bo Katan.

* * *

Everything comes to light in those few moments, she is fitted with armor and numb, acting on autopilot as the galaxy repulses at the news that the chancellor is a liar. The senate is broken, there is little faith in their leaders, and the minuscule faith people had left in the Jedi is diminished entirely.

Mandalore is still under siege from the chancellors leftover troops, and Maul’s deathwatch. Ahsoka fights and fights, taking in his words with a filter, where everything she already knows flies over head and the knowledge that they have far too much in common stabs at her heart.

It’s not even a mistake that they didn’t reach out to the Jedi for backup, they wouldn’t have come, and the only one truly upset about it is Maul. There should be a fury in her chest, this man had wanted to kill Anakin to hurt Obi-Wan and then finish him off too. He even had the gall to ask her to help with this as well, unaware that she’d already raised the flags of war. His vision terribly flawed.

Everything else is heartbreakingly true.

It’s what seals his fate as well, that and Bo Katan's body is torn in two, skull split on the floor meaning it is he who rules. She cuts his reign short by lunging for his throat, and his pleading eyes still beg for her hand even as his head topples to the ground. Severed.

Tentatively the girl pulls the darksaber from his belt, realizing that by winning the battle against the swords wielder, she rules the planet. Two mandalorians happen to topple in then, one a part of the death watch, and one not.

They freeze at the sight of her, the hulking man emblazoned with the death watch symbol acts first, bowing and acknowledging her superiority. The other mandalorian follows. Little does she know as they look at her, the two of them see the solution to their people and planets strife.

The less zealous man sees a capable, young woman who can stay in power for a long time. One who isn’t as violence oriented and extremist as Bo Katan while not being a perilous pacifist in the way Satine had been.

The death watch on the other hand saw the same unity the other was getting at, but he also seemed to be having a religious experience. The mural of Tarre Vizsla flashing in his mind. They knew the girl used to be a Jedi, one who rebelled from their newer ways since the old republic fell, there wasn’t anyone more worthy of holding that saber in his eyes.

Mandalore had found it’s rightful ruler, one that they didn’t plan on letting go of anytime soon.

* * *

With Mandalore's neutral status and the fact there wasn’t an active government ruling the galaxy, no one but the people on Mandalore were privy to the deaths of Bo Katan, Korkie Kryze whose body they found lodged under a crashed ship, and of the renegade Sith Maul. The shift in power was reserved to local news as well.

The outer rim had been eerily quiet, Mandalore was no different. With the government seemingly abolished, it was up to the planet’s themselves to govern themselves, and when those needs didn’t fit the needs of the people they rioted and took the rights the core worlds had done nothing to grant them.

Ahsoka as she looked out over the city, the people working tirelessly to rebuild it almost hoped that things stayed this way. There was still guilt filling her bones at the sentiment, knowing her family was being ostracized during this change, and all Ahsoka could hope was that they learned something from it. She threw out the thought that she was technically what she once despised, was she a sepratist now? She couldn't answer.

A lot had been on her mind that day, she’d been challenged by another man belonging to the death watch. They’d accepted her after the siege but there'd still been some doubt, and today as she lopped her opponents head off in the same way she’d done Maul’s they’d pledged their alliance as the man’s armor was melted and fused with her own. 

Now her arms and legs were protected, and a helmet she wasn’t required to wear was shaped. The armorer had noted her biology meant the helmet was like nothing she’d made before. It would require upkeep in that she’d keep growing. Meaning they couldn’t add points to protect her montrals, nor could they fasten the beskar to her lekku.  So her blue helmet had two large holes at the top molded for her lekku and montrals to peek through. The back of the helmet was also shorter than average protocol, this way her back head tail could breathe and move without being chaffed or scarred.

Mandalore’s symbols are prominent and scattered along her gauntlets and greaves. There are Jaig eyes placed over her heart, and her helmet is decorated with her facial markings.

Logically it is likely because the metal had only recently been forged that she feels warm. There’s more to it. What that is, she believes is safety. An uncommon feeling for someone in her shoes.  If she’s entirely honest, it’s something she didn’t think she’d ever be capable of feeling. Anakin contributed to her safety the most and she’d latched onto that for as long as she could. But here in armor, on a planet forging under her command, she felt safer than she ever had at the temple. It's a conundrum the seventeen year old doesn’t know how to deal with, especially while alone.

The armorer had been kind, her advisor and a fine amount of the Mandalorians she’d spoken with, even the ones iffy of her, had gone smoothly. Well enough that she knew it’d be alright to speak with them.  Her comms still worked, she hadn’t tried reaching out to anyone, not even Bail since the battle. Fearful that the moment she made contact with the outside world, it’d rush in and tear this one apart.

If that meant not calling on Anakin, well, from the little she felt across their limp bond that he was alive, not hiding as much as he used to. He was more pliant and he certainly hadn’t fallen.  She didn’t push the bond further, not wanting him to feel her poking and try latching on. Ahsoka kept her shields unbearably high, there weren't any force sensitives around so she didn’t exactly need to, especially when it was exhausting her. Although i t was good practice nonetheless. An act just as important as going through the motions with her sabers to keep her from sharp. When training she’d taken to switching her shoto blade with the darksaber, switching arms everyday to get herself used to the weight.

The people stationed across the castle, mainly the one who often sat in on her training, radiated with a certain smugness as they saw her wielding it, or even it sitting idly on her belt. _They adored her._

“Lady Tano,” they were still trying to muster up a royal title. She may very well be a duchess soon, and the girl didn’t know how to feel about that. Padme taking up politics so young and dealing with protocols and curtseys more excessive than even those of the Jedi would always be something she respected her for.  Thankfully with Mandalore’s background, she’d been assured that her lack of decorum and diplomacy wasn’t the end of the world. That could be taught and assisted, they were already tutoring her on her Mando’a, what was a few things more?

“Yes?” she hummed in turn, not wanting to turn away from the view in front of her. The man who approached was none other than her advisor, his tan skin a soft reflection of the brown and orange beskar hugging him.  He was only around two or three years older than herself, and that alone helped some of her nerves. He extended a palm with two periwinkle capsules that she recognized from the holo and medbay.

Someone else might be insulted, and she could tell he was the tiniest bit worried that she would be but she was the farthest thing from. Sleep had been elusive since the battle, twenty minutes at a time had been all she managed, and she had to look just as haggard as she felt.  The pills would suppress any dreams, and that foreign feeling of safety told her it was okay. Taking the pills from his hand, she swallowed them without the help of any water and gave her advisor Tinian a hauntingly grateful smile.

“Thank you,”

Tinian’s eyes open the slightest bit wider at her words. It’s almost a little sad that a simple thank you surprises him, she wasn’t what the Mandalorian's were used to. Maybe in time. Excusing herself, Ahsoka walked the hall to her room. A room that once belonged to Duchess Satine and everyone else that came before her.

It’d been redecorated, readily prepared for her. The bed wasn’t the same as the one she slept on yesterday, and she realizes guiltily they likely had noticed her insomnia and blamed it on the bed.  It had played a factor, being far too soft, but it hadn’t been the sole reason. When she removes her armor and slips into bed, she realizes on the massive mattress that half is tough like a Mudhorn while the other half is as soft as a well groomed Bantha.

Rolling onto the firm slab and pulling the blanket that perfectly matched the color of her stripes up over her head, the girl curled in on herself and let the pills do their job and pull her down to sleep.

* * *

She wakes with the sun and considering it’d still been up when she’d gone to sleep, it’s been over sixteen hours. Still the girl wanted to rest, pulling herself out from beneath the sinfully addictive covers, she closes the curtains and returns to her bed’s embrace and knocks out until noon.

This time she dreams, actually dreams. It is not a vision or the force pushing at her brain nor is it a nightmare. It is her family, it is Anakin, Padme, Obi-Wan, and Plo Koon. She is simply an on looker but they are all happy and she feels it as well as they do.

There is no threat of the dark, there is peace and balance, and they all look so much younger. There are no stress lines on any of their faces and there are genuine smiles pulling at their teeth.  She wants to smile with them but it isn’t too pressing of an urge. She is content. The feeling carries even when she wakes once more. The force wrings her out until she is nothing but limp and loopy.

It makes putting on her armor a struggle, a struggle she appreciated in that it didn’t come with the looming impediment of further danger. She is safe, she can bask, she can be assured but will not or ever fall into complacency.  She’ll always be ready for another battle, she is a warrior, and she still is, even as she is a Duchess walking down the hall to settle at a table where her breakfast is brought to her. Where they startle at her gratitude and provide her the tutelage she needs with an eagerness she meets.

It’s not home, no place has ever been home. Anakin had been her home. But home wasn’t always _home_ , they changed and moved. She wouldn’t say or believe for a second that she was moving on from her big brother. There’d always be a home in him for her to return to, but this here and now was furling into something similar.

A home of her own.

* * *

She’s training with the death watch when Tinian approaches, “Duchess, we have visitors,” his voice displays his distaste and worry. They haven't had visitors yet, there had been some attempts at contact that they’d brushed off insisting that they had enough to work out on their own before they expanded further, but nothing in person.

“Who?” the training stops, they bow, and the girl’s helmet gleams in the light. The painted facial markings blinding.

“Two Jedi and a senator from Naboo,” 

Ahsoka’s breath hitches beneath her mask, wondering if they’d found her purposefully because she knows exactly who it is. Anakin always provides protection for Padme, and Obi-Wan is always who they send for negotiations.

“And where are they?”

“I’ve brought them to the dining room,” Tinian returned, Ahsoka taking in the helmet on his head. He normally doesn’t wear it but with visitors they are all armed to the teeth.

“Thank you,” she doesn’t walk alone, Tinian is at her side, and the buffest man in the death watch moves to follow. She allows it but decidedly makes them both wait at the door.  When she steps in they rise from their seats, raising her hand in motion they then again take their seats with her. The three scrutinize her with their gaze, and it’s collective when they realize just who is under the helm. 

Pulling it off her head, Ahsoka bows respectfully, tampering down the urge to jump Anakin in a hug. They are here for negotiations and she has to get this right. If she’s too affectionate first she’ll simply spoil things. It seems Padme understands this because she reacts first, bowing and settling.

“Ahsoka,” Anakin’s voice is hoarse with disbelief, and it hurts not to respond just as uncomposed.

“Master Skywalker, Master Kenobi, Senator Amidala. Your visit is unexpected,”

“But not unwelcome?” Obi-Wan responds immediately, running a hand through his beard, He’s on edge, it’s terribly obvious, and she can see in his eyes that it stems from guilt.

“We’ll see,” she can practically hear Trinian’s voice murmuring  _ Kandosii _ when the words pass her lips. 

They hold to the answer and Anakin gulps, taking his seat again. She can feel his signature reaching out, she can’t simply grasp it in case they get stuck so she simply sends over a wave of feelings that she hopes he can make out.

“How?” Anakin is less than reserved, and Ahsoka simply turns her helmet. The markings staring at them. It’s a frightening oversight that they have not recognized that she is Fulcrum. Her insignia alone was permanently written on her face!

Obi-Wan’s head is in his hands in seconds, Padme less than gracefully sips the wine in front of her, and Anakin takes a few seconds more to realize just exactly who’d been contacting him.

“It was you,” his voice is small, it’s a whisper then, “You saved me...you saved everyone,”

She knows. Nodding, she sends him a soft smile, unable to keep it off her face.

“We are in your thanks,” there’s more unspoken to Obi-Wan’s words, he wants to apologize, he just doesn’t know how to say it or if it will be enough.

“After I left I got into contact with Bail, he helped get me set up when he found out I was going around doing what I could to help. And when I was doing those things, the force guided me in gathering what I would need. It all made sense when finally the force brought me to the sixth son.”

She pauses wondering if she leaves out the abnormality of her sabers purification, and ultimately decides to leave that little detail out. “I purified them and constructed my own sabers. _Very_ soon after Bo Katan found me. War was coming and at first she had the thought of asking you for help,” she looks to Obi-Wan, and guilt settles in her chest knowing how much this visit must be hurting him.

“Maul was here, he wanted to face you. He was going to try to kill Anakin...He killed Bo...and I cut off his head,”  It’s deathly silent, they are astounded at her words and Ahsoka picks at her left lekku.

“And Korkie Kryze?” Padme speaks up, obviously under the impression that like a monarchy he could simply rule, and even so if he’d have lived Ahsoka knows with the opposing clans, they wouldn’t have let him live or rule a single day.

“Dead,” that announcement is far more hesitant, the boy’s parentage is unknown but she had a sneaking suspicion it was the same ginger man at the table. Considering how pale both he and Anakin got, they thought or knew that fact to be true as well.

Taking a deep breath, Ahsoka knows she needs to be blunt. Knows that they are not truly alone, and she has to think of Mandalore and it’s people.  _ Dinuir ni Kot. _

“Mandalore will not be making an alliance, not now and none will be even be so much as considered until there is evidential change,” the words are firm, and the two here to negotiate nod, not even trying to refute her. 

Her shoulders drop once she’s said her piece. The relief is enough to lower her shields, allowing Anakin to jump, both physically and mentally. She tucked into an embrace that is carefully thought out. He’d been quiet in his pursuit, if he’d been loud the men outside of the door would have burst through otherwise.

The teen sniffles, trying desperately to hold back tears as she digs her nails into his back.  _ She’d missed him so kriffin much _ . She cannot hold in her sobs when two other bodies join their hug. 

_ She is home. _

* * *

It’s not ideal but Ahsoka meet’s her niece and nephew over the holo. The two babies babble at her excitedly, trying and failing to grab her lekku. She can already tell that Leia takes more after Anakin while Luke is very much Padme's son.

Maybe someday soon when the galaxy is right and the force allows it: Anakin won’t be the chosen one, Padme will not be the Senator of Naboo, Obi-Wan would simply be a man, and she wasn’t the duchess of Mandalore, they’d be together again.

**Author's Note:**

> Snap: allisonw1122  
> Tumblr/twitter: webtrinsic1122  
> Insta:Webtrinsic


End file.
